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The officers who were involved in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old John Crawford III will not be charged.

An Ohio grand jury in Greene County has opted to not bring charges against the officers involved in the fatal shooting that took place Aug. 5 at an Ohio Wal-Mart. The grand jury reached its decision a little before 12 p.m. on Wednesday.

In a statement to the Los Angles Times Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office, said the investigation into the killing of Crawford in Beavercreek was now closed.

However, the Department of Justice—just hours following the decision—released a statement saying it will launch an independent investigation of the shooting. The statement read:

The Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney’s Office, and the FBI have been monitoring the state’s investigation of this case. The Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney’s Office, and the FBI will conduct a thorough and independent review of the evidence and take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable violation of federal criminal civil rights statutes. This is an on-going investigation; therefore, the Department can make no further comment on this case at this time.

Crawford was shot and killed for failing to comply with law enforcement.

Update: New Video Shows John Crawford Fatally Shot By Police In Walmart

Family’s statement:

“The Walmart surveillance video and eyewitnesses prove that the killing of John H. Crawford, lll was not justified and was not reasonable. It is undisputed that John Crawford, lll was in Walmart as a customer and was not posing a threat to anyone in the store, especially the police officers.”

There are no words what kind of person sees that video plus an autopsy report of a man shot several times in the back and comes to that conclusion ??????

2naturho

Deeply saddened by this news. What a sick, sad world we live in for people to see the actual evidence and declare no indictment??

Simone L

On one hand, the police were doing their job. On the other hand…the guy who called the police and admitted that he lied should be brought to justice. A woman had a heart attack and died due to the excitement of this. That man should be arrested.

Anthony

@Simone L, unless you define doing their job as killing any black person that makes white uncomfortable, the police did not do their job. They simply killed a black person, the moment they had any sort of legal cover (he supposedly did not respond to a verbal command.)When I was a grad student living in a dorm, I was on the phone calling my mother in the basement the morning after a storm, and the basement was slightly flooded. A police officer came up behind me and asked me for my ID while I was on the phone talking to Mom. I thought he was just speaking at first and I turned around and said hello, he kept standing there and asked for my ID, then I gave it to him. Although I would think that seeing someone on the payphone in the basement who actually spoke without trying to run away should have been a dead giveaway that I was no crook,if this cop had been a real jerk, he could have gotten physical with me for not immediately complying with his request, if I had shoved back because I had been unexpectedly accosted, I would have been in jail for assaulting an officer. The grounds on which black people are arrested and killed are “legal,” but often razor thin.

Krystal

I have no words

Anthony

For racists who think all black people are monsters and thugs, any possible shred of evidence is enough to justify a killing.